In the pseudo-mansion in the woods, very early in the morning, Kevin made his way to Abby's room, he opened the door quietly enough so as not to alert anybody outside, as expected she was asleep.

Kevin closed the door and pinched her nose closed, as soon as she ran out of air she woke up seeing Kevin's grin.

"Morning' killer," Kevin greeted her.

"Kevin, I will break your fucking arm." she pointed at him with a death glare.

Abby was not a morning person, so much so waking her up was the best way to reveal her true colours.

"Yeah, yeah, drink this," he said tossing her a vial of clear liquid.

Without questioning its purpose she put it to her lips and drank from it.

She gulped the whole thing down before extending her hand and waiting for Kevin to take back his vial.

"What's in that stuff anyway."

"That was my custom wake-up potion, you can do some really cool shit with the herbs around here, I managed to gather four different types just here on the property!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"So what, you're just walking around gathering flowers at night?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Women like a guy that likes flowers!" he replied pointing finger-pistols at her.

"Yeah, eat a handful of nettles to impress me, Kevin, go on." she encouraged him.

"Actually, nettles are edible, you can make soup or tea from them, the little crystals that sting you only appear at a certain point in their life cycle," he explained.

"Oh shit, really? Wait, no - this isn't the time for Kevin the herbalist teacher!" she retorted breaking free from her interest in Kevin's plant-based knowledge.

Once more the two fell silent before Abby spoke up.

"So operation 'know the target' starts now..." she sighed.

"Yeah, we should go after a weaker target first, get used to the way things go, y'know." Kevin advised.

"I guess you're right for once..." she scratched her chin before snapping her fingers.

"I know, let's get Tony, the shaman!" she suggested.

"Alright, let's think about his abilities and what we know about him..."

"Any class has ten abilities, I saw him use a few when we were fighting the demon king and his servants..." Abby stated.

"I didn't really get a chance to see those..." Kevin replied with a shrug and a smug smile as he remembered chilling at home and living in general comfort.

"One of his skill was water-walking for sure! He made the water below him solid, he was able to cast it on the whole party when we were trying to cross a really fast river," she noted.

"I also saw him shoot pointy rocks from the cave walls, though it looked like he needed to have exposed rock to use it," she added.

Kevin thought about it for a while, "I saw him playing around with a pile of salt in my lab once, he was making it swirl around and change shape, I suppose that would mean he can control salt too,"

"We did fight indoors before, but I never saw him control wood, so I suppose he's limited to unprocessed elemental stuff," Kevin added.

"Alright... that's three abilities and one weakness... I don't like our odds so far..." Abby sighed.

"For as much as we were fighting outside and in the rain, I never saw him using thunder or lighting outside a thunderstorm, so I guess we should fight him in good weather," Abby added bumping their list of weaknesses to two.

After a few more seconds of brain-storming, Kevin got a wild idea, "Why not just ask him?"

Abby looked at him blankly before letting out a "Wha?"

"I mean, tell him you'd like to know more about his abilities, he's a guy and you're at least a seven out of ten so it'll probably work out." he shrugged.

"I can't just ask my target to show me his abilities before he magically dies a day or two later!" she argued back in a hushed whisper.

"Why not, you guys are both the loner type that nobody wants to talk to." Kevin pointed out.

"All the more suspicious!" she exclaimed.

"It's up to you, I guess, he'll be on potato duty in the evening today so I'll see him, I'll let you know if he does anything new with his magic," Kevin told her before standing up and heading towards the door.

"I better skedaddle before your boyfriend shows up again," he said with a somewhat sadistic grin.

"Call Adam that again and I will stab you in the throat," she warned.

Kevin quietly left the room, leaving his hand in the door long enough to give Abby a thumbs up before returning to his room.

Abby sat on the bed, Kevin's potion worked surprisingly well, she felt zero fatigue, if not for Kevin refusing to let her, she would have opted to not sleep at all and just drink ten of those a day, but Kevin kept saying her liver would dissolve into a grey paste if she did.

'Three abilities... there has got to be more... and I can't attack him without being sure we can take him on...' she thought.

A knock came from the door.

'A knock?! It's not Kevin!' she realised as she asked: "Who is it?"

"It's me, Adam!"

'Oh Jesus fucking christ...'

"What is it?" she asked.

"I just came to have a chat, can I come in?" he replied, the sound of him gripping the door handle announced to Abby she was doomed already.

'Hell fucking no!'

"Alright, come on in," she replied as she sat up.

In through the door walked in Adam, glasses and cloak equipped as always.

"Hi Adam..." she replied with just the slightest hint of disappointment.

"Good morning, Abby!" he announced almost loudly enough to wake anyone in the adjacent rooms up.

"STOP TRYING AND GO BACK TO YOUR ROOM, ADAM!" the voice of the paladin commanded accompanied by about five people doing an "Mhmm" in agreement.

Hearing the yelling Adam hunched forward a bit cowering a bit before whispering an apology and closing the door to Abby's room slowly enough so as to mask the creaking of the hinges.

'Oh my god, you're such a fucking loser...' she though doing her best to keep her polite smile.

"I was thinking..." he looked down to the ground using one hand to keep his glasses secure.

'Oh no...'

"I don't really have anything to do tomorrow...well, today... so if you'd like to hang out..."

Not seeing a reply he looked up to Abby who's face was currently twitching as the facial muscles she had refused to maintain a smile.

"No... I can't I have... something else to do..." She replied.

The look on Adam's face shifted to a sadder one for a second before returning to his normal one.

"Oh, alright, what are you planning to do?"

'That is none of your fucking business, Adam.'

"Oh, I was going to... -" she cut herself off when she realised she could exploit this situation.

"Oh, y'know, I was looking around for ways to get stronger, so I was thinking of asking Tony the shaman for a one-on-one sparring lesson," she replied.

The look on Adam's face turned to one of despair.

"Tony? T-The guy who's by the water all d-day? He's not that s-strong, don't bother!" he exclaimed.

"You could spar with me, instead!" he continued.

"Thank's, but I don't think I'd learn much from fighting a healer, plus I'd love to see how he fights." she put extra emphasis on the word love.

"W-well, I could go fight him instead! You'd see how strong I am!"

'And I'd see his moves without being the suspect!'

"Are you sure, Andrew? I would hate for you to get hurt." she forgot his name again.

His cheeks got even redded.

"It's fine! I can take him!"

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Oh but, what about poor Kevin, aren't you minding him today?" she asked.

His expression shifted slightly.

"I know! I'll mind him, just fight somewhere I could see you guys through the window!" she offered.

Adam's face lit up once more, "Yeah! That's genius!" he stood up and headed towards the door, "I'll go get ready!" he announced before stepping outside.

'Nice! ...But also gross...' she thought as she laid back on her bed, this was going to be an interesting day.

She got out of bed and put on her boots before heading downstairs, the room was completely empty say for a red-haired man with sideburns and dark skin.

"On you're awake Abby!" he said putting down the last of the plates leftover from yesterday.

"Yeah, I see you're left to do the cleaning as always." she asked with a polite smile, the red-haired guy was called Ben, she didn't dislike Ben unlike most of the other "heroes", he was quiet but not a loner, a bit of a neat-freak but he never made anybody else clean, he just did that himself.

"I wouldn't trust them to do the dishes, much less clean the place, I still have nightmares about that one time Lilly offered to "clean up and give me a day off" before just soaking the dishes in cold water and putting them away." he shuddered.

Lilly was the young girl with the witch's hat.

"I see you're in your element then." she laughed before sitting down at the table.

"I guess you could say that!" he grinned, technically, Ben's class was engineer, like a cross between a blacksmith and a mechanic, but he was essentially the entire group's mother.

"What can I getcha' for breakfast?" he asked picking the dishes back up and heading in the direction of the kitchen.

"I don't mind, something with eggs I guess," she said uncertainly.

Minutes later he returned with a wide grin and two plates as well as a mug.

Before her was an omelette, inside were bits of fried onion and bacon bits, the other plate had a bunch of peeled and sliced fruit, the mug had some luke-warm milk.

"Just the omelette would have been fine," she said looking at the fruit.

"No it wouldn't, when was the last time you had any fruit?" he asked not waiting for a reply before turning his head towards the stairs when he saw the paladin marching down, dressed in his golden armour, he was mid-yawn when he noticed Ben and gave him a polite wave.

"Good morning, Michel," he said as he looked at him awaiting his breakfast request.

"What's up guys..." the paladin marched down and sat down opposite Abby, "Could you get me some toast?" he asked turning towards Ben who gave him a nod and headed inside the kitchen.

"Good morning, Michel," Abby said, after all, she had to be liked by the group leader.

"Hey, Abby... did Adam wake you up again?" his voice sounded weak and his head hung low, he was clearly hungover.

"No, I was awake for a while before he came into my room," she replied.

'If adam woke me up we'd be having a much different conversation...'

"Are you feeling alright?" Abby asked seeing the usually happy-go-lucky paladin looking like he's about to fall over dead.

"I think we should have done what you did and just go to sleep... I feel hungover to oblivion..."

After about ten minutes of chatting between Abby and Michel, Ben returned with a plate consisting of three bits of buttered toast and a bowl of cabbage stew from yesterday.

"I just asked for toast..." Michel said eyeing the stew, he really hated cabbage.

"Cabbage is full of vitamin C, it'll help you with the hangover," Ben explained making Michel plug his nose with one hand and gulp down the entire stew in one go.

"Hey, hey, don't choke on it!" Ben panicked as Michel placed the bowl back on the table and unleashed a mighty burp.

'Some fucking paladin you are...' Abby thought as she looked at Michel trying to keep her usual smile.

He then proceeded to eat the toast with considerably more enjoyment.

"I can't stand cabbage... it's evil lettuce..." he said jokingly looking at Abby.

"I suppose you're right." she laughed a fake laugh.

"Anyway, I heard from Gab about the plans to give each hero domain over a small village or two to further the development of the country," he said with a sombre note in his voice.

'Of course they would...' she said starting to feel her blood boil, 'They have no idea of the shit they're dooming everyone to...'

"I see..." she looked up at him and saw that he didn't exactly look happy about what he said either.

"Aren't you excited to be in charge of a town?" she asked.

"Of course I am! We could introduce education, better roads and better medicine!" he exclaimed.

'Of course, that's what you people would do...' she tightened the grip on the fork she was using to eat the omelette.

"But... I don't think I've really meant for that kind of thing, y'know... I'm more of a stabby-tank guy, not like Gab..."

Gab or Gabriel as he is actually called is the strategist of the party, he was very secretive about his abilities since the very start and encouraged others to be as well, he was the guy wearing the suit the day before.

"I wonder what he'll do..." Abby asked not expecting an answer.

"He said something about "modernising their homes" - like, he was going to build apartment blocks and roads, he's having Ben work on a car prototype, though since Kevin is... y'know... they're struggling to get fuel, they asked him but he just made more potato noises."

'Good job, Kevin!' she thought making her relax a bit, though Gabriel's idea almost made her feel sick, a perfectly normal fantasy world made to look like a soviet-era city...

After Abby finished her omelette she stood up from her chair and started heading up the stairs, "I'll go pay Kevin a visit." she explained.

"Are you sure? I'm sure you could just leave him there, there haven't really been any big accidents with him involved before." Michel said perhaps more worried about having to deal with Kevin the next day more than being concerned with Abby.

"Don't worry about it, we should help those less fortunate than ourselves."

'Less fortunate my ass, that dumbass is just sitting there doing fuck all!'

"Sometimes I think you should have been the paladin here, y'know." he laughed.

"No, no, you're a fine fit for a paladin," she replied heading up the stairs.

Abby made her way through the tight corridor, her head was filled with thoughts of anger and hatred, 'why would Gabriel do that?!'.

In her distracted state, she bumped into the archer-class person, Garry, that was his name.

"Oh, sorry!" she exclaimed stepping back.

The archer didn't say anything, that's a quality she appreciated, he simply nodded and kept walking.

She headed to Kevin's room.

When she reached the door she knocked on it as if to once more say "Oh look, I can knock!" before stepping inside.

"Ah, starting your potato duty early today I see," Kevin announced as soon as she closed the door, she locked it so nobody could walk in and see Kevin walking around like a normal person.

A smug smile crept its way onto her face, "That's because I took Adam's shift over for him, while he's outside your windows "duelling" with Tony the shaman to impress me!" she announced proudly.

"Not a bad idea, though that kid is going to get every last bone in his body broken, you know that?" Kevin asked walking up to the window and seeing Adam already there doing jumping jacks in preparation for combat.

"That's just a bonus for me," she replied stealing Kevin's chair and placing it against one of the windows.

"You're so cruel, he's your number one-fan." he laughed.

"Maybe, but he offered to fight Tony himself."

Tony approached Adam, who turned to look at the windows in Kevin's lab and waved at Abby, she cracked the window open to hear them.

"Wish me luck, Abby!" he called out.

She shot him a thumbs up before turning to Kevin.

"Would it be too much to hope he dies?"

"Alright, Tony! Don't take this personally, but I have to go all out!" Adam warned him pushing his glasses up.

"Go ahead, I'll fight you at fifty percent though..." he said plainly.

Tony was wearing his usual robes, patches of green, brown and tan leather and fur stitched together to form a robe.

He had long, dirty-blond hair, it covered half of his face such that everybody wondered how he can see.

'Fifty percent... it's a bit of a stretch but I'll just double anything he does to be sure...' Kevin thought watching his actions closely.

"Hmph! We'll see how long you can keep me at bay with only fifty percent!" he scoffed before turning towards Abby and giving her a wink which caused Abby to shudder in disgust.

"Elements of water, earth and air, heed my call, I ask for a ten-minute contract so that I may train with my ally."

Abby laughed a little hearing Tony only ask for a ten-minute contract.

"Alright... so he has to specify the time, and since he's only fighting at fifty percent he can use a maximum of six different "spirits" I guess..." Kevin explained.

Abby looked at him for a second wide-eyes, surprised that he picked all that up already.

"Yeah, guess you're right," she said turning back to the scene of the massacre.

Adam charged in towards Tony who said "Earth, create a wall." causing a dirt wall to rise up from the ground, Adam ran straight into it before falling onto his back.

"Water, whip his torso." as he said that, a tendril of water escaped from his general area, upon further observation, they realised he had a pouch of water on his hip.

The tendril cracked down on where Adam was smashing into the ground before going back into Tony's pouch.

Adam was already trying to flank Tony from the other side of the wall.

"Earth, make a pit under Adam, one meter deep." in no more than two seconds Adam found himself falling down into the meter-deep hole, he was struggling to get out when Tony said his next command.

"Air, crush Adam, don't hurt him too badly." as he said that a sudden gust of wind was heard before smoke and dust rose up from the hole in which Adam was.

The battlefield fell silent for a bit before Adam climbed out of the hole, around him a sphere of light, his [Healing Bubble] which made him invincible to attacks for thirty seconds.

Tony was a little surprised the weakling of the group was still standing, though to be perfectly honest he was holding back a bit more than fifty percent.

Adam charged at Tony once more with his hand outstretched towards him, before Tony could say anything a bright flash of light came from his hand blinding Tony.

Adam moved the staff down onto his head, barely managing to bruise him bit still knocking him back.

"Aha!" Adam cheered as he turned to look at Abby.

"Water, needle projectile at the torso."

"What?" Adam turned back to Tony and saw the water taking shape as a dozen or so tiny water needles appeared and shot at Adam, they disappeared after stabbing an inch or so into him, but it still hurt.

"Water and earth, make the ground into mud and start sinking Adam to his chin," he commanded as the ground below Adam started to shift he rushed back seeing that the mud was being created behind him as he rushed, he ran over to a patch of grass and flowers hoping the roots would keep the soil intact.

Much to his and also Kevin and Abby's surprise the mud-creating stopped at the border where the grass began.

"How did you know elements can affect other elements?" Tony asked.

Abby and Kevin exchanged an "Oh shit, he did something useful!" look as they turned to Adam who stood there equally confused.

"What?" he asked.

"...nevermind," Tony replied.

"Air, keep Adam away from any elements I don't command right now."

Once again an invisible gust of wind picked Adam up and dragged him away from the grassy area, in retaliation Adam grabbed a hold of the grass below clawing at it in an attempt to stay in the safety of the grass.

Suddenly with a loud sound and a gust of wind, even Abby and Kevin could feel a circle of dust appeared on the ground letting Adam go and allowing him to return to the grass patch.

"Tch, you made the air spirit damage the forest indirectly so his contract broke... you must know more than you let on..." Tony said as spoke his next command.

"Water, create a bubble around his head, don't damage any of the forest," he commanded.

The water from his pouch, as well as another pouch on the other hip, rushed over to Adam forming a bubble of water over his head, instinctively he tried to claw at the grass below but nothing happened.

"Water, let him hear." as he said that the water bubble morphed to allow both of his ears to be exposed.

"It won't work, you're the one damaging the forest now, not the spirit," he explained.

Adam was panicking as he was trying claw at his neck or cup air into his hands and bringing it inside of the bubble only for Tony to say "Water, push out all air in the bubble until he surrenders."

[https://i.imgur.com/eGdhblB.png]

"How was the water-bubble different from the air-dragging... why is the water spirit not disappearing?" Abby asked looking over to Kevin for a moment before looking back to the fight.

"The air spirit was dragging him, it was like a human using a tool to scrape the grass, whereas the water may be making him panic, but it isn't making him damage the grass." Kevin presented his theory.

'Except it's now a spirit using a tool...' she thought.

"You're pretty smart for a potato," Abby said still not looking at Kevin.

"That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me..." Kevin said wiping a nonexistent tear from his eye.

Still refusing to surrender Adam tried smashing the bubble on a nearby tree.

"Water, start spinning." as he said that the water began to swirl quickly, if any air was allowed inside the bubble of water would have been white from the foam by now.

Adam fell to his knees smashing the bubble into the grass as the fast water mangled the grass the bubble popped allowing Adam to gasp for air interrupting Tony who was about to finish saying "Water, stop!"

"You took out two of my elementals... guess I'm stuck with only one until midnight..." Tony said irritated before extending his hand.

"Earth, form a blade."

From the ground a sword-like shape created from compressed dirt took form.

"Earth, needles into Adam!" he commanded as dozens of sharp spikes of compressed dirt hovered beside Tony, shooting straight at Adam, stabbing into his flesh.

Before Adam could react with anything more than a yelp Tony continued.

"Earth, drag him back here!"

Before Adam had a chance to grab onto the grass or other plant life he was jerked back towards Tony who said his next command.

"Earth, uncompress the spikes." as he said that the spikes grew in size to about thrice their original size before crumbling out leaving Adam screaming and crying in pain, bleeding from about a dozen different places.

As Tony moved in for the final hit with the dirt-sword Adam cast the bubble breaking the dirt blade on impact before he extended his hand towards Tony, blinding him with another flash spell.

Adam cast the greater heal spell on himself as the wounds on his body disappeared.

He backed away from Tony who regained his vision and made one final command.

"Earth, spear at non-vital torso spot."

Adam's eyes widened in horror as he heard that, he looked back to the window and back to Tony.

From the ground, a spear with the diameter of a shot glass formed and flew at Adam.

Adam stood there with a spear through his chest, bleeding heavily from the wound as Tony smile slightly at his victory.

"That was to be expected..." Kevin said scratching his beard.

"Yeah, I hate to say it but the twerp put up a good fight for a healer," Abby admitted.

Kevin turned towards her in a millisecond "Two compliments in one day!? Who are you and what did you do to Abby?!"

She flipped him off before they were both caught off guard by the sound of earth breaking outside.

The spear was falling apart before Adam cast the healing spell on himself.

"What the hell!?" Tony looked at Adam seeing him battered and bloodied.

"Earth, make a hole under him." but no reply came.

Adam raised his hand showing a small flower he ripped out with its roots intact from the grassy patch earlier, the flower looked like it was in perfect health, except for the single petal which was damaged, it was stabbed by the spear when Tony stabbed into Adam.

Adam charged at Tony with his staff before being elbowed to the face and passing out.

"Ouch..." Kevin averted his eyes, "After all that fighting..."

"Well, at least he did something useful," Abby said satisfied.

Abby closed the windows and returned the chair to Kevin.

"Alright... if the weather is fine, we'll fight Tony tomorrow." she decided.